I AM A STRANGER

I am a stranger.
I walk alone amongst the throng.
Like a grain of sand on the shore,
I am a cipher.
Solitude is my cloak,
Anonymity my disguise.
I see you but you are a stranger too,
Unless I let you touch me,
Or reach out and touch you.
I crave intimacy, but I fear it too.
What if I smile and you frown back?
Say something and you ignore me completely?
I fear rejection too,
Maybe more than friendship.
I wonder what lies behind that aloof facade.
Yours as well as mine.
Do you feel as I do?
We are alike after all,
You and I. Unaware of each other
Except a signal be given or received.
But who will initiate contact?
All that’s needed is a gesture.
Even the thought would be a start,
But I am frozen,
Immobile in my indecision,
And so you pass by. And you and you.
A multitude of you, flowing around me
Like a stream around a pebble.
So familiar in your anonymity
It makes me uncomfortable.
But I have said nothing. Done nothing.
Today is the same as yesterday and the day before.
Will it be the same tomorrow?
Still I walk alone.
I am a stranger.

— Bryan Knower